“…there are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Bahar Kimyongür’s may be subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment if extradited to Turkey, we would like to draw your Government’s attention to article 3 of the Convention against Torture, which provides that no State party shall expel, return (refouler), or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture.” Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Special Rapporteur on Torture, and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of freedom of expression b. Djamel Ktiti: A French national, Djamel was first arrested in Morocco, where he was detained for more than two years, and subsequently in Spain, where he was imprisoned for nearly six months, on the basis of a Red Notice issued by Algeria in 2009. On both occasions, his extradition was refused by national authorities on the basis of a 2011 decision of the UN Committee against Torture, finding that his extradition would present an unacceptable risk of: (a) his being exposed to torture; and (b) his being prosecuted on the basis of evidence obtained through the use of torture. In January 2015, Fair Trials and REDRESS together submitted an application to the CCF.19 The application 18 19 20 explained, inter alia, that the prohibition on torture, a norm of jus cogens and customary international law which binds international organisations, includes an obligation to prevent the occurrence of torture. As such, there could not be any possibility of an alert against Djamel being lawfully used ‘with a view to extradition’ or being compatible with Article 2 of INTERPOL’s Constitution in light of the UN Committee against Torture’s findings. INTERPOL eventually deleted the Red Notice in December 2015, over six years after it was originally published and five years after a UN treaty body published a decision confirming the risk of torture faced by Djamel. ‘…. despite the complainant’s allegations highlighting the potential risks, the Supreme Court of Morocco did nothing to assess those risks but was content to base its decision to extradite on statements which, according to the complainant, were obtained under torture. In view of this evidence, …. the Committee concludes that the complainant’s extradition to Algeria would violate article 3 of the Convention.’ 20 United Nations Committee against Torture, in the case of Djamel Ktiti 32. We found that this problem was largely caused by flaws in INTERPOL’s process of reviewing alerts, including: a. the lack of information on how the review is carried out (including the number of staff responsible, the level of detail and whether country or regional experts are employed to advise on individual cases) and what rules and guidance govern the process of review; Application available at: http://www.redress.org/downloads/redressfti-interpol-applicationdjamel-ktiti.pdf United Nations Committee Against Torture, Forty sixth session, Communication 419/2010 (26 May 2011) CAT/C/46/D/419/2010